SOCIAL MEDIA SITES NOT REGULATED AT WORK?
March 2011

Facebook and other social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube) have huge followings. The data below is from the Employers & Manufacturers Association (EMA) Annual 2010 Employment Round Up survey (undertaken in Dec 10) and certainly gives business owners things to consider….

Of those businesses that undertook the study 98% had their own website, however only 29% used Facebook, 24% use LinkedIn, 18% used YouTube and 17% used Twitter FOR their business (purposes such as marketing or public relations).

The survey indicates most employers don’t have the time or belief in the benefits of such sites for their own marketing and PR.

The survey was more interesting in regard to staff using social media sites; 79% of business owners don’t have a policy or requirement in their employment agreements relating to work comments staff post on social networking pages. This is surprising considering the real risk that employees or former employees can (and sometimes do) post derogatory remarks about their boss, colleagues or company where they work.

77% of employers have policies covering general use of the internet. 70% restrict employees’ access to internet use – mostly by way of a policy (48%) however 28% block access to sites that can take up a lot of time such as shopping and social media sites.

Of the 23% of employers who have no restrictions, some feel they need to give employees full access for business, some just haven’t got around to restricting use, but 69% feel the issue is of no concern.